Lawsuit-riddled retiree paradise has new owners

1of 7Linda Corder paid $25,000 to move to the park in 2010. “The last owners were such poor business people that they pretty well ran it into the ground,” she says. “Hopefully, these new people have a better plan for it.”Photo: San Antonio Express-News / File photo

2of 7A for sale sign hangs on a residence at El Viaje RV Retirement Retreat north of Medina, Texas off Texas Highway 16, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. Tenants rent the land and some of them got into a legal wrangle with the owners. Several have since moved out of the retreat.Photo: San Antonio Express-News

3of 7Linda Corder hangs out in her neighborhood in El Viaje RV Retirement Retreat north of Medina, Texas off Texas Highway 16, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. Some of the tenants in the retreat got into a legal wrangle with the owners and later moved out.Photo: San Antonio Express-News

5of 7Hills surround El Viaje RV Retirement Retreat north of Medina, Texas off Texas Highway 16, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. Some of the tenants got into a legal wrangle with the owners and have since moved out.Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News

7of 7A gravel road leads into El Viaje RV Retirement Retreat north of Medina, Texas off Texas Highway 16, Thursday, Jan. 30, 2014. Some of the tenants of the retreat got into a legal wrangle with the owners and have since moved out.Photo: Jerry Lara, San Antonio Express-News

MEDINA — A sign stating, “El Viaje RV Retreat,” is gone, new owners have taken over and the tenants still living in the retirement community off Texas 16 say they hope the turmoil is over.

More than half the lawsuit-riddled park's 58 sites were abandoned in recent months by residents angry at having “lifetime leases” pulled out from under their golden years.

“I'm looking forward to peace,” said Butch Eby, who — like the others who remain — is awaiting details about what changes may be in store from David Redford and Lawrence Haby, who recently bought the business.

Redford said his immediate priorities are addressing neglected maintenance issues, filling up vacant RV slots and conferring with residents — on a case-by-case basis — about their leases.

“Everybody has to be on the same page to make this work,” he said. “It has to be run like a business.”

Retirees were drawn here starting in the 1990s by the promise of a lease for a one-time, up-front payment of up to $25,000 — plus a low annual maintenance fee, fixed at $500 to $800.

The lifetime leases no longer are offered, but they factor into pending lawsuits by former tenants against former owners of the 72-acre park.

“The last owners were such poor business people that they pretty well ran it into the ground,” Linda Corder, who paid $25,000 to move to the park in 2010, said last week. “Hopefully, these new people have a better plan for it.”

Advertisements for El Viaje touted its tranquility, but things were far from peaceful of late along the gravel streets that wind between recreational vehicles beneath oversized awnings.

Some residents resisted the management efforts of Anne Blankenship and Susan Venus, who, four years after taking over, filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

The retreat was sold after being posted for a foreclosure auction in March that was withdrawn.

A lawsuit filed against the retreat in 2012 by several residents was dismissed, along with the El Viaje bankruptcy petition, by a judge who declared that perpetual leases aren't permitted under Texas law.

That led Venus and Blankenship to assert the lifetime leases were invalid and to propose to residents new 20-year leases, at no additional upfront costs, and an increase in annual maintenance fees to $2,200.

“What we tried to do was give them a valid lease,” Venus said in January, noting: “We inherited frozen maintenance fees and frozen rent.”

Many of those who vacated the place contended their original leases were valid.

“I don't think they really realized everybody was going to pick up and move their stuff off,” said Dee Roberson, 72, who now lives in Kerrville.

She said she acquired a lease from the park's original owner, Robert Freeman II, for $25,000 in 1999.

“If we thought we were going to lose it, we wouldn't have invested that much money,” said Roberson, who reported recouping only $13,000 from the sale of her El Viaje residence, which, with improvements, she valued in excess of $300,000.

“It just seems incredible that the government would allow these two women to financially ruin so many people, legally,” said Roberson, a plaintiff in the dismissed 2012 lawsuit.

Some residents expressed sympathy for the women, casting them as casualties of unrealistic demands by tenants intent on managing the managers or exacting revenge through litigation.

“The faction that was dissatisfied is gone,” Eby said. “I'm happy here, and, as far as I know, the other people still here are happy.”

There's one lawsuit pending against El Viaje, filed by Richard and Nora Burch of Houston, who paid $22,500 for a lifetime lease in 2009 and agreed to an $800 annual fee.

The lawsuit, which doesn't name Venus or Blankenship as defendants, accuses the resort of deceptive trade practices and breaching their lease by seeking to terminate it last year.

The couple's lawyer declined comment, saying: “We haven't spoken to the new owner.”

A separate suit was filed last year against Freeman, who it named as the park's owner when it was called Las Aves Retreat, and a husband and wife who reportedly managed it.

Freeman and the co-defendants have denied its accusations of deceptive trade practices, fraud and negligent misrepresentation.

“The lawsuit is simply a tactic to try to demand money from Mr. Freeman for allegations against the current owner of El Viaje Retreat,” Freeman's lawyer said in January.

He said then that Freeman believes the disputed lifetime leases “are still in effect.”

Jim Willburn of Houston is among former El Viaje tenants eager for information after learning of the sale.

“I haven't heard anything, and I'd like to know what's going on,” said Willburn, 75, who put down $18,000 for a lease in 1997 and refused to sign a new one last year.

Redford declined to discuss the legal issues surrounding the lifetime leases, but said: “There were several terminations done by El Viaje and several tenants didn't pay dues when it came time to pay dues. Those (leases) are all terminated.”

Joyce George, a tenant since 1998, is among those willing to pay more than her initial commitment to keep the park afloat.

“We're just real happy that the ownership change is done and we're not in the limbo, that maybe we'd have to move if someone took over that didn't want us here, or didn't leave it affordable where we could stay,” said George, 73.